In current mobile communications networks, services may be purchased in advance by subscribers from their service providers. These subscribers are known as prepaid subscribers. Prepaid services include not only voice communication services, but also text-based communication services such as email or short message service (SMS). SMS allows subscribers to send short messages across the network to other subscribers in a timely fashion. Typically, short messages originating from mobile subscribers are handled by mobile service switching centers (MSCs) in the network and prepayment information is handled by a prepaid server (PPS).
While prepaid services provide convenience to subscribers, current mobile communications networks fail to handle insufficient account balance of prepaid subscribers efficiently. An insufficient account balance occurs when the account balance of a prepaid subscriber falls below a predetermined threshold. Current systems handle an insufficient account balance by sending a notification to the subscriber via a band signal. However, the notification is sent only when an active voice call or short messaging is in progress and only to the calling subscriber.
Another problem associated with insufficient account balance of prepaid subscribers is missed calls. Typically, prepaid subscribers receive missed call notifications from the system via short messages. However, if the cause of missed calls is due to insufficient account balance, current systems fail to identify this problem and notify the subscribers with funding instructions. Similarly, short messages may be missed, held, or undelivered due to insufficient account balance of prepaid subscribers. Current systems fail to notify the subscribers with instructions on how to recover these messages. Therefore, what is needed is an ability to overcome the problems and limitations of handling insufficient account balance of prepaid subscribers.